Expert: Paul Wagner - 12/30/2001

Question
can you brew alcohol from maple sap?
wouldn't it seem logical?
i was thinking about new england in colonial days, importing rum from the islands, and it struck me; why didn't they brew maple sugar?
can it be done?


Answer
I do know of liqueurs that are flavored with maple syrup, but here are the challenges:

1.  Quantity.  Colonists drank literally boatloads of rum and Madeira.  And sugar cane produces a LOT more sugar and juice than maple syrup--and it was easier to get, too.  If you figure that one maple tree produces about one gallon (is that right?) then it would take a LOT of trees and a lot of work to produce the one quart per person per day alcohol consumption of many of the colonies.

2.  It takes more than just sugar and yeast to make wine--it also needs various organic compounds that nourish the yeast.  I don't know enough about maple syrup to say whether or not it has all the nutrients yeast needs.  This can also be a problem sometimes with the very ripe grapes used for dessert wines...

3.  Acidity.  To make good wine, you need acidity to balance the flavor--otherwise the wine is very flat and cloying.  This is why bitter hops are used in beer--to give the beverage a bit more character and definition.  Maple syrup has none of these.  

In conclusion, you could probably get around the latter two issues, even in colonial days, by adding everything from small amounts of apple juice to tea.  But the first one still remains--it just isn't commercially viable, compared to the other choices.  

But it does make a nice flavoring for liqueur!

Paul Wagner